Vintage Fostoria, Kansas.
Fostoria, Kansas is a ghost town in Pottawatomie County.
Located in Shannon Township, Fostoria probably got its start as a station on the Leavenworth, Kansas, and Western Railway, a branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. A post office was established on August 14, 1884.
The town grew slowly and by 1910, it had a population of only 125. However, several businesses had been established and it boasted a bank and a money order post office and telegraph and express offices.
In the next decades, the community remained small and it continued to have a post office until the 1970s. However, the post office closed and today, the community receives its mail from nearby Ohlsburg.
In more recent years, Google Maps captured an image of a couple of buildings in Fostoria in 1913, which have changed today.
Fostoria, Kansas buildings courtesy Google Maps.
Old barn in Fostoria, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
This old business building in Fostoria has fared better by Kathy Alexander.
The community is served by Blue Valley USD 384 public school district, which provides the Blue Valley High/Middle School in Randolph and the McCormick Elementary School in Olsburg
Fostoria is located eight miles northwest of Westmoreland, the county seat, and six miles east of Olsburg.
Compiled by Kathy Alexander, 2022. Updated July 2023.
Readers Comments:
I was born in 1963 and my grandmother Ercel King was the Post Mistress. Around 1969, with the Post Office falling apart, they moved the mail boxes into the old bank building. My grandmother filled the vault with mail order games and toys and added coolers for soft drinks, and a few groceries delivered from Westmoreland. There were church pews for benches where people would sit and talk. My grandmother walked from her house to the Post Office and back, and put the flag up and took it down and followed all the flag rules. She died in 1979. I don’t know exactly when she quit working, but I know she was still working in the summer of 1977. My uncles, Roy and George (and Lois) Stauffer also lived in Fostoria. – Joy Antonio